CBN says investment in cotton farming to boost ginneries capacity

Onome Amuge

• Freezes accounts of 15 textile smugglers

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the investments it has made in the cotton farming value chain will boost the production capacity of ginneries in the country.

The banker to the government also disclosed that it has frozen the accounts of 15 textile smugglers across the country.

Edward Adamu, deputy governor, corporate services of the apex bank, made this disclosure at a stakeholders meeting of cotton, textile and garment (CTG) associations in Abuja. He assured that CBN’s intervention in the CTG industry is in full swing and has recorded significant progress.

Noting the achievements of the apex bank in the textile industry, he stated that over N120 billion has been invested across the cotton, textile and garment value chain.

He further maintained that over 320,000 farmers had been financed between 2018 and 2020 and expected output for seed cotton in 2020 is projected to be over 300,000 metric tonnes.

He stressed that the CBN’s intervention is expected to boost the production capacity of the ginneries in producing over 102,000 metric tonnes of cotton lint which in turn will meet and surpass the cotton lint requirement of the Textile Industries.

According to him, Nigeria’s current domestic demand for cotton is met through local production, thereby halting the importation of cotton for the textile industry.

Furthermore, he stated that 19 ginneries have been revived across the country and more are expected to join later this year leading to an increase in capacity utilization of ginneries as the ginneries now operate throughout the year, compared to six months in recent past.